


To show appreciation

by Daidaiiro



Category: Spider-Man - All Media Types
Genre: And want to thank him, Attempt at Humor, Fluff, Gen, Hurt Peter Parker, I know, I'm a little late, It's only a little, New York likes Spidey, christmas gifts, sorry - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-27
Updated: 2017-12-27
Packaged: 2019-02-22 08:34:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,940
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13163226
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Daidaiiro/pseuds/Daidaiiro
Summary: Many New Yorkers want to thank Spidey for constantly saving them.





	To show appreciation

**Author's Note:**

> I made another Christmas fic, and I know: it's late. I just couldn't get this idea out of my head and had to write it.

It all started with a five-year-old. 

"Spidey!" The happy exclamation caused the hero to turn his head. 

"What is it, lil' buddy?" Spider-man crouched on the ground to be at eye-level with the kid. 

"What do you want for Christmas?"

"Uh," The hero didn't seem prepared for that question. "Well, peace an quiet. Wait, I sound like a parent, can't have that. No crime. No robberies or muggings or car crashes or anything. But enough about that, what do you want for Christmas?"

The kid's face lits up like a Christmas light. "A monster truck! The red one with lightning bolts and lights that really work and it honks and I can control it with a controller so I can drive into dad's leg!"

"That sounds awesome!" The hero gestured wildly with his arms, a grin visible even with the mask on. "You're going to be a monster truck driver, huh?"

"Yeah, cars are cool! And boats too! And planes!! I want all of them!" 

Spidey chuckled. "They are so cool, right? You-"

"Alex!" A woman erupted from the crowd of spectators, paramedics, and victims from the huge fire behind them that Spidey had rescued most of them from. 

"Oh, my god, thank god, you're okay!" The woman fell to her knees and embraced the kid. 

"Spider-man saved me!" 

The woman looked at the hero, who had stood up and was preparing to leave. 

"Thank you so much." The gratitude in her voice was thicker than the air around them. 

"Just doing my job, ma'am." Spiderman bowed at a 90-degree angle and saluted when he got up again for good measure. He turned to leave, but the woman opened her mouth again.

"Wait! Please, let me repay you. You saved my child, I can't let you go without any kind of reward."

"That's really not necessary." Spidey started to look uncomfortable. "Just buy Alex here that super cool monster truck for Christmas and we'll call it even."

"Please, at least take this." The woman grabbed the hero's hand and pushed some dollar bills in his hand.

"No, I can't take your money." Spider-man tried to give the paper back to the mother, but she refused. 

"I can't believe the superheroing is paying the bills. Please, just accept it. It'll make me feel better. You're helping by taking it."

Spider-man looked really uncomfortable, but eventually closed his hand around the notes with an "Okay," before swinging away.

He was not aware that the sweet moment between him, the kid and the mother had been filmed and put on YouTube. Neither did he know that the video went viral and the hashtag #PresentForSpidey was trending.

 

Not long after, Spider-man was in a fight with Rhino. He won, of course, but not without a long, deep cut in his arm from when he was thrown through a reinforced window. 

"Ow, ow, ow," the hero hissed. "Web-slinging is gonna hurt."

"Spider-man!" One of the paramedics (that had shown up since the Rhino wad wreaking havoc in the middle of the city, and people were hurt) ran over to the wall the hero was using as a seat with a worried look on her face. 

"Please let me help you!" She was carrying a first aid kit and had started opening it.

"Don't worry, it's just a scratch," he quipped. "I've had worse."

"Please let me help you anyway. You're hurt and in pain." She pulled a needle, thread, a cotton bud, some anti-bac, and a box probably filled with painkillers, out of the kit. 

"I can stitch myself up." The hero hissed when he moved his arm. "Do it all the time. Go help someone else."

"The civilians are being taken care of, nobody was hurt too bad," the medic ensured. "At least take this." She took the box of painkillers and removed four.

"Not enough," the hero hissed through his teeth. 

"How many then?" she asked.

"At least half the box, if those are regular ones."

"They are." She closed the box and threw the whole thing Spider-man. He caught it. "But we have something stronger in the ambulance. If you wait here, I can go get some."

"You really don't have to. Just give me the needle and some thread and I'll be on my spidery way!"

"Are you a trained medical professional?" she asked seriously.

"No, but my sewing skills are pretty good."

"That's not the point. I have my pride as a medic. I won't leave you hurt or let you stitch yourself up when I'm right here and can do it for you!"

"That sounded cheesy, like a bad romance."

"Let me help you, Spider-man."

The hero sagged on the wall and gave a small nod. "Fine, just-. I'm staying here."

She ran to the ambulance and grabbed a syringe and a jar filled with a clear liquid, and then some more for good measure. 

Spidey presented his arm hesitantly when she got back. He was alert but still when she pulled out a syringe filled with the liquid from one of the jars. 

"Tell me when it stops hurting." She started injecting the anesthesia directly into the wound. She could see bone and there was glass everywhere, but the bleeding had stopped, mostly. "Enhanced healing?"

"Yup," he answered, popping the 'p'. 

She had emptied three jars before the hero started to relax. Another two for him to say "It's okay now."

"Good," she said. "I'm gonna use some tweezers to remove the glass pieces, and then we're gonna stitch it together, okay?"

"Go ahead."

She carefully picked the pieces out of the hero. "So, any plans for Christmas?" He probably didn't need it, but she still tried to distract him from his injury.

"Nothing special, just celebrating with family." He shrugged. 

"So, what do you want for Christmas?" 

"Those." He pointed to the remaining jars. "They would make my life a whole lot easier."

"You can have them."

"No, you've already wasted five of those miracle workers on me, I can't take them."

"Spidey, you need them more than we do," she insisted. "We have plenty of those anyway."

"... Thank you."

"Anything else on your wish list?" All the glass was gone now. She used a cotton bud with anti-bac to clean the wound out before starting to sew it shut. 

"Ehh, you know. Medical supplies, mainly. And stuff to fix my suit and ingredients to the web fluid and such."

"No ordinary things that aren't related to this?" She finished the stitching and pulled out a bandage because she did not trust the hero to not take it easy. "Can you pull up your sleeve or do I have to bandage it on top of the spandex?"

He stretched the material up to his elbow. 

"Thanks." She covered the arm with too much bandage, but she didn't care. It was reusable. "So, wish list?"

"Um, I haven't really thought about it. I didn't exactly grow up with a silver spoon in my mouth, and I'm happy if I can just have a nice day with my family."

She hummed. "All done!" Spider-man looked at his arm. "That's a lot of bandages."

"I know." She picked up the anesthesia and shoved it at the hero. "Merry Christmas!" 

He didn't say anything, just slowly climbed up the wall. 

Once again, he was unaware of the several news cameras that had picked up their conversation. He noticed the headlines in the newspapers the next day, however, but didn't think much of them. 

 

But Spidey was not done dealing with New Yorkers, far from it. The day before Christmas, he sat comfortably at the top of a billboard in Times Square, looking at all the people rushing around buying last minute Christmas presents or having fun with their family. 

He was just about to leave when someone shouted: "Spider-man!"

He looked down where a man in his twenties was cupping his mouth, forming a make-shift microphone, or attempting to. 

Peter stopped, unsure of what to do. 

"Come here!"

Against his better judgment, he began climbing down the side of the billboard, eyeing the man carefully. He stopped about two thirds down.

"I have something for you!" the man yelled, digging through his bag and pulling out a small, white plastic bag wrapped around something round.

"It's a Christmas present! I wanted to thank you for saving my life a few weeks ago!" He tossed the gift to the spandex-clad hero. He caught it. 

"Uhmm, uh, I, uh..." he stammered. 

"Don't be shy, open it!" he yelled with a grin.

Peter did as ordered, and found himself with a fluffy spider-man Tsum Tsum in his hands. 

"I didn't think they made these," he said. "And I've been searching. I have the Avengers, the Fantastic Four, the X-Men, and Deadpool even gave me one of him! That was a weird day." He frowned. "Why are you giving this to me?"

"I said already! You saved my life! And my wife and kid's! We bought the monster truck by the way! I just wanted to say thank you."

"You- you shouldn't have. Really, this isn't necessary. I don't need a reward." He carefully (way too carefully for a plushie) put the mini-Spidey back in the bag. 

"I can't accept this."

"Yeah you can!" someone from the crowd barked. "You help us on a daily basis and even if you ask nothing in return, we want to repay you. Accept the damn gift!"

Peter curled slightly in on himself. "Uh."

"Spidey, catch!"

Another bag was thrown at him. He caught in on reflex. 

"What?" He looked at it questioningly. It was hard and shaped like a book.

"A Christmas gift!" The thrower stepped out of the crowd. "Accept it."

It was weirdly quiet while Peter took the book out of the bag. The silence was however shattered when Spider-man broke out in laughter. Some confused spectators chuckled with him for the 20 seconds he couldn't do anything nut shiver in laughter. 

"Are you serious?" he crackled and turned the book so the crowd could see. "A joke book?"

"So absolutely!" She proudly put her hands on her hips. 

Spider-man dissolved into laughter once again.

There was rustling in the crowd, that consisted of essentially everyone in Times Square. Several people looked in their bags, pockets, hands, and anywhere else items could be occupying space. 

"Spidey!" A little girl ran up to him. "Come down!"

Still crackling, he slowly lowered himself by a stand of webbing until he was only maximum two meters above ground.

The girl signaled with a finger to get closer, so he did. When he was at the acceptable distance, she grabbed the tiara on her head and promptly put in on Spider-man's. 

Spidey remained quiet, partially in shock, partially in awe. 

Without further ado, people were stepping forward and placing items in the ground below him, saying things like "Merry Christmas, Spidey!", "Thank you!" and variations of them, along with some attempts at a joke. 

Spider-man could only stare as the pile grew bigger and bigger. It was composed of clothes, food, books, art supplies, sunglasses, money, just anything people had that they were willing to give to the masked vigilante. And, of course, about a third of it was Spider-man merch, ranging from key chains to full-on Spider-man cosplays. 

Peter felt his eyebrows getting wet, which would be weird if you didn't count on him hanging upside down. 

In a broken voice, he asked: "Are- are you serious?"

Reassurances were vocalized loudly across the entire Times Square. Peter put a gloved hand over his mouth. The crowd silenced. 

"Thank you."

**Author's Note:**

> I think this went okay. I wanted it to be a little sweeter though, so maybe I'll make a rewrite next year. 
> 
> Please tell me what you think! I'm still new to this (this is my second fic) and I really want feedback!


End file.
